Chapter 245 You Have Three Days
Jonathan picked his phone up and took the call. “Hello? What is it?”
“Mr. Goldstein? It’s me, Randall,” Randall greeted him, but his voice sounded a bit hoarse. “I have looked into this matter. The man called Derrick took all the compensation meant for the villagers of Greendale Village. He is also the leader of a local gang, and they have caused a lot of trouble for the villagers. Suffice to say, they are a local menace. The total recompense for the village is around a hundred million, and Derrick took it all for himself.”
A hundred million? Jonathan’s face fell the moment he heard how much money was involved in the corruption. A village chief alone took a hundred million that is meant for the villagers. The corruption must be worse in the higher echelons then.
The chief of a small village is already taking this much money, so what about the chief of a bigger one? Are they involved in more severe corruption? If that is true, the mayors must be involved in even more egregious transactions. There is no doubt that the chief is involved as well.
“I want you to get to the bottom of this, no matter what,” Jonathan ordered coldly, “Drag all these parasites into the sunlight. Find everyone who is corrupted. Leave no stone unturned. I do not care even if Zachary himself is involved. Punish all the corrupted officers, and I mean all of them. Severely, if I may add.”
“Yes, sir!”
Even though they were only talking through the phone, Randall could still feel Jonathan’s sheer, unbridled fury in his voice.
How could Jonathan not be furious? By all accounts, he should have gone on a rampage. Even he was shocked to hear that the chief of a small village was involved in a corruption case that involved a hundred million.
“I hope you are not involved in this matter, Randall. For your sake, I hope you are clean,” Jonathan growled calmly. Despite that, Randall was scared out of his wits. He quickly defended himself, “I have nothing to do with this, sir! I swear.”
“You better not, Randall,” Jonathan replied coldly. “Because if you are somehow involved, losing your mayoralty will be the least of your worries. If you do not understand what I am saying, let me put it in plainer terms. You will lose your head.”
“I understand, sir. I guarantee that I am not even the least bit involved in this matter,” Randall quickly clarified again.
“Look into this in Jadeborough as well. You might have left a lot of stones unturned, and I want them to be brought into the sun,” Jonathan commanded, his voice as freezing as the winds of Helheim. This case was only exposed because I stumbled upon it. Simply put, by pure luck. Had I not come across this, who knows how much more the people would have to suffer?
This might only be the tip of a titanic iceberg in Jadeborough. Who knows how many people in power are involved in this? Who knows how many corruption cases there are in the nation? Ten thousand? A hundred thousand? Perhaps more.
“Yes, sir! We will be getting to the bottom of this in Jadeborough tonight! I promise nothing of the sort will ever happen again under my leadership! If I somehow fail, I shall bow down before you and accept any punishment you deem fit to dole out, sir!” After that, Randall issued an order to look into all the public servants in Jadeborough and see if they were involved in any corruption cases.
After Randall had given his promise, Jonathan said, “You have three days. I want you to clean up this mess, and I do not want to see even a speck of dust remaining. Do you hear me?”
“Crystal, sir!” Randall did not dare to hesitate when it came to this point, for his own head was on the line.
After he hung up, Jonathan looked at Alice and her family. “I have the results. It is direr than I thought. Derrick has taken all of the compensation meant for you and the other villagers. The grand total is a hundred million. Give or take a few dozen million.”
“He took more than a hundred million all for himself?”
The Renners were even more shocked than Jonathan was when they received the news.
A hundred million was a lot of money. They had never seen so much money before in their whole lives, but Derrick kept it all for himself when it was supposed to be the villagers’ money.
“The money belongs to you and the villagers.” Everyone was still dumbfounded as they tried to process what they had just heard. “The staff from the military commander’s residence will transfer your compensation to you in three days. Maybe less than that. You could potentially receive the money by tomorrow morning.”
With Jonathan being the overseer, Randall would not take three days to process the transaction. At the latest, he would come to the village himself by next afternoon.
“T-Then those b*stards won’t be released, right?” Scarlett looked at Jonathan, still worried that Derrick would get back at them if he was released. After all, he was only arrested because they meddled in the affair.
“They will not.” Jonathan shook his head. “If nothing goes wrong, they will be spending the rest of their lives locked in a prison.”
“That is good to hear.” Scarlett heaved a sigh of relief. “They should never be released. Let them rot in prison. We’ll be a whole lot better without those thugs to lord us around.”
“Alice, I shall get you a hotel room later. You do not have to stay in the ward tonight.” Jonathan looked at Alice.
She had been staying with her parents for days on end. Her face looked tired, and her eyes were bloodshot. Jonathan knew she must have been sleeping poorly for the last few days.
“It’s all right, Jonny,” Alice quickly refused the offer. “I’m fine sleeping here. You don’t have to waste your money on a room for me.”
It’s costly to stay at a hotel. A few hundred for a night, if I remember correctly. He shouldn’t waste that kind of money on me.
“She’s right, Jonathan. You don’t have to waste your money. She can stay with me for the night,” Scarlett refused too.
“Mrs. Renner, you shall soon be a millionaire. A night in the hotel room is nothing.” Jonathan smiled. “Besides, it has been days since Alice has had a good sleep. Let her take the day off.”
“A million? We can get that much?” Arnold asked.
“Around and about,” Jonathan answered calmly. A house around two hundred square meters would be worth a few hundred grand in the recompense package. If the need arose, he would take a few hundred grand more out of his own pocket to make it a million.
“But—” Scarlett wanted to say something, but Arnold stopped her, “Just take Jonathan on the offer. Alice looks exhausted. She should get some sleep. And that’s final.”
“Let’s go, Alice.” Jonathan waved at Alice. Now that they had come to a decision, Alice had no qualms about staying in a hotel room.
After coming out of the hospital, Jonathan asked a police officer to take Alice to a hotel. Surprised, Alice looked at him. “Aren’t you coming, Jonny?”
“No.” He shook his head. “Don’t mind me, though. I shall be going on a stroll.”
“I see.” Alice bit her lip and left with the officer. After they were gone, Jonathan went to the roof instead of going on a stroll.
He sat down cross-legged beneath the starry night and started practicing the Ancient Sacred Dragon Technique. Ever since he came back to Jadeborough, he had put his training aside. However, since he got a chance to do it at the moment, he would not allow it to slip through his hands.
The light of the stars showered upon Jonathan, and a blue light vaguely shone within his body, resonating with the galaxy above.
Jonathan finished the first rotation of his technique, then the second, then the third…
He spent the whole night practicing on the roof, never even taking a step off it. When dawn started to break through the horizon, he slowly opened his eyes and heaved a sigh.
Right after he lit a cigarette and came down from the roof, he bumped into Randall, who came to the village first thing in the morning.
“Sir?” Randall was shocked to see Jonathan coming down from the roof. It’s only five in the morning, but he’s already awake?
